INDIA OPENER EMULATES GAVASKAR... BY BEING DISMISSED FIRST BALL OF A TEST

KL Rahul joined a very exclusive club by losing his wicket to Suranga Lakmal

Only five Indians had done it before him but KL Rahul will wish he hadn't joined them.

The opener lasted just one ball of his country's Test match against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens on Thursday before traipsing back to the pavilion having been dismissed by Suranga Lakmal.

Rahul, playing in his 20th Test, nicked the visiting seamer to wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella after rain had delayed the start of play.

In achieving the not-so-distinguished feat - which came after a run of seven consecutive half-centuries - the 25-year-old emulated Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar.

The great man was incredibly dismissed three times by the first ball of a Test match during a career which brought him 10,122 runs in the format.

The first instance came against England at Edgbaston in 1984, with Geoff Arnold the bowler, and history repeated itself against the West Indies in Kolkata in 1983 and versus Pakistan in Jaipur four years later - the fearsome pair of Malcolm Marshall and Imran Khan claiming his scalp.

^{KL Rahul is the sixth Indian to be dismissed first ball of a Test}

Gavaskar is one of just two men to have completed the 'hat-trick', with the other being Bangladeshi opener Hannan Sarkar, who endured a torrid time against the West Indies in the early 2000s.

Sarkar was snared by the same bowler - Pedro Collins - three times in little over 18 months between December 2002 and June 2004. 

All three dismissals took place in the first innings, with Collins bowling Sarkar once and trapping him lbw twice.

The Bangladeshi batsman finds himself in esteemed company, however, with the likes of Herbert Sutcliffe, Sanath Jayasuriya, Chris Gayle, Gary Kirsten and Andrew Strauss - as well as Gavaskar and Rahul - having also suffered the same fate at some point during their careers.

Meanwhile, Lakmal became only the fifth bowler to have got rid of an opener first up, having claimed the wicket of Chris Gayle in similar fashion seven years ago.

Also on the roll of honour are Arnold, Collins, Sir Richard Hadlee and Kapil Dev.

BATSMEN TO HAVE BEEN DISMISSED FIRST BALL OF A TEST MATCH: AC MacLaren (England v Australia - Melbourne, 1894/95); TW Hayward (England v South Africa - The Oval, 1907); W Bardsley, (Australia v England - Leeds, 1926); H Sutcliffe, (England v New Zealand - Christchurch, 1932/33); TS Worthington (England v Australia - Brisbane, 1936/37); CC Hunte (West Indies v Pakistan - Port-of-Spain, 1957/58); EJ Barlow (South Africa vs Australia - Durban, 1966/67); RC Fredericks (West Indies v India - Port-of-Spain, 1970/71); KR Stackpole (Australia v New Zealand - Auckland1973/74); SM Gavaskar (India v England - Birmingham, 1974) SS Naik (India v West Indies - Kolkata, 1974/75); JFM Morrison (New Zealand v England - Christchurch, 1974/75); Mohsin Khan (Pakistan v India - Jullundur, 1983/84); SM Gavaskar (India v West Indies - Kolkata, 1983/84); SM Gavaskar (India v Pakistan - Jaipur, 1986/87); WV Raman (India v New Zealand - Napier, 1989/90); SJ Cook (South Africa v India - Durban, 1992/93); G Kirsten (South Africa v West Indies - Cape Town, 1998/99); ST Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka v Australia - Galle, 1999); LV Garrick (West Indies v South Africa - Kingston, 2000/01); SS Das (India v West Indies - Bridgetown, 2001/02); Hannan Sarkar (Bangladesh v West Indies- Dhaka, 2002/03); Hannan Sarkar (Bangladesh v West Indies - Gros Islet, 2004); Hannan Sarkar (Bangladesh v West Indies - Kingston, 2004); W Jaffer (India v Bangladesh- Chittagong (CDS), 2007); D Ganga (West Indies v England - Chester-le-Street, 2007); TG McIntosh (New Zealand v Pakistan - Dunedin, 2009/10); AJ Strauss (England v South Africa - Johannesburg, 2009/10); CH Gayle (Sri Lanka v West Indies -  Pallekele, 2010/11); FDM Karunaratne (Sri Lanka v Australia - Galle, 2016); KL Rahul (India vs Sri Lanka - Kolkata, 2017/18)

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